St Mary's College (Co-Education)

Finally a movie-grade degree college in Hyderabad! Not one of the dank and sleepy sanatorium like ones where EAMCET and IIT rejects are relegated to, but a snappy and spirited one where you can have more fun (as is logical) than the engineers and doctors do.

St.Mary's degree college, Yousufguda is right out of the Archie comics. Wi-fi enabled and dress code free, it has glossy floors you can skate on and washrooms rather than toilets. And the cafeteria doesn't look like the college got built around a tapri to save money. And the stationary shop is called Kiosk and stocks Snickers and Mars bars.

Is this an experiment or is this for real? Well, its as real as the 80 cars gleaming in the parking lot that transport celebrity sons like Nagarjuna's and Chiranjeevi's into school everyday. Gopichand and VVS Laxman are alumni and Sania Mirza comes here between her grand-slams.

The students here are positively beaming when they tell you what an extraordinary and 'different' college this is. They are thrilled with the lecturers who are apparently knowledgeable, understanding and friendly. The prinicpal Mr.Mahendar Reddy is like a friend (remember, "the PRINICPAL is your PAL?" Well, it's more than a spelling rule here ).

Regular seminars on academic topics as well as issues like women's health, hotel management and many more are held every week. The certificate course department offers everything from Ikebana to mind-studying, taught by rather reputed people in the fields. The fact that St.Mary's has great faculty is also evident from the training programs conducted for Wipro and Satyam on campus every weekend.

The Bachelor's course in Mass communication, in it's second year now has really picked up after the overhaul it was put apparently through. Now, St.Mary's has tie-ups with leading newspapers and cinema studios, active movie and media clubs and a collection of 300 classic movies.

Placements are great with Wipro, Visualsoft, Satyam, Google and lifestyle picking up a number of students .

Then there are the playing courts where you can see boys and girls slamming away at Volleyball with hordes of students cheering from nearby. And the faculty and prinicipal's chambers that looks like a Corporate CEO's office. With leather sofas and halogen lamps, this is where you really get an indication of how expensive this place must be.

And so it is! Check out the fees field in this write-up. And when you are done reeling, decide whether you can afford it because this place sure does LOOK worth it.